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Ludwig Becker

Glasgow University Archive Services, GUM

A cartoon and poem depicting Ludwig Becker, Professor of Astronomy, in Glasgow University Magazine 15 February 1899.

Ludwig Wilhelm Emil Ernst Becker was a native of Bonn, Germany. He came to Scotland in 1885 to take charge of the observatory at Dunecht. He was appointed Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow in 1893, and held the post for forty-two years, until his retirement in 1935. His main areas of research were in nebulae and the physical features of the moon.

As this cartoon and poem indicate, Becker was a very popular lecturer and it was said that his classes were larger than those of any other professor of astronomy in Britain.